I like to collect Impatiens, both Yellow Jewelweed (Impatiens pallida) and Spotted Touch-Me-Not (Impatiens capensis), but it can be trying. I carry a 12” x 20” x 5” pan into a nice big patch of plants and knock the tops of the plants into the pan.  Seeds fly everywhere but a goodly amount fly into the pan, many ricocheting off my face.  In a big patch of them, there are usually several holes that I can stumble into and, if I’m lucky, I won’t spill too many seeds.

After the seeds are collected, I place them on a window screen to dry out.  At this stage of the process I should hire a cat to watch over them. The mice found my seeds this year, stole all of them and stored them around in different caches in my cars and trailers.  The neat part of this was that they cleaned them very well and when I started to find the caches, they were filled with only the good, pure seeds. Unfortunately, they did not separate the two species of Impatiens so I could not sell them.  Oh well; there is always next year.

The Impatiens are called Jewelweeds and also Touch-Me-Nots.  They are called Touch-Me-Nots because when the seed is ripe the pod will blow apart and throw the seed many feet away.  Kids love triggering this and can be entertained for long periods of time with a patch of Jewelweed.  If you have ever seen a Jewelweed plant in bloom with dew hanging on it, the reason it is called Jewelweed is obvious. Taking cue from the mice, I have eaten Jewelweed seed and have found it to be rather tasty, reminiscent of sunflower seed.   The next time you find some Jewelweed, rub the seed coat off and a beautiful turquoise blue inside will be revealed.  That in itself makes it worth growing them.